And it will serve Milton Keynes.
High Speed Rail 180mph, £15 billion and it will serve Milton Keynes.
High speed rail is to come to Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes is one of a select few major towns and cities to be served. The idea behind the proposal is to allow rail to compete, yet again, with the airlines. Do you remember the old Intercity services of British Rail? Well low cost airlines have had a significant impact on long distance rail travel in the UK. Cost is a factor, but time also impacts on the decision to travel by rail or air.
In the UK nowhere is a vast distance away. We’re talking hundreds rather than thousands of miles. For these short distances rail is by far the most sustainable form of transport. However, we are all busy people and time is a major factor in our choice of travel mode. High speed rail will bring rail back into direct competition with air travel on both cost and time. A 1hr flight from Luton to Glasgow in real time takes close to 4hrs. First there is the journey to Luton, 2nd there’s the check-in time, 3rd the actual flight time and 4th and finally the journey to central Glasgow. If you can travel in comfort from central Milton Keynes to central Glasgow in a little over two hours and enjoy lunch en route with a real knife and fork which mode would you choose? So when is this service likely to be available? Well it is all at the planning stage at the moment and Network Rail has to find the £15 billion. A not insignificant sum when you consider the West Coast Main Line has cost £7 billion to upgrade – three times the original estimate. On the positive side it is estimated it would take a significant amount of traffic off the roads and out of the air. The savings in carbon and CO2 emissions would certainly have an impact on government targets for reductions of greenhouse gases.
Meantime 125mph, £115 million Milton Keynes Central Upgrade
In the meantime we have a 125mph track and significant improvements for services at Milton Keynes Central Station. The station is due a £115 million revamp over the coming months. Part of the improvements will be an additional platform to increase the number of trains able to stop, and improve reliability and journey times.
Other wins will be regular hourly services to Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Stockport. That’s a doubling of the current frequency and a real bonus for the residents of Milton Keynes and Mancunians alike.
There will also be an increase in the number of trains going to Birmingham, Birmingham International (National Exhibition Centre http://www.necgroup.co.uk/visitor/thenec/ ), Coventry (Free Transport Museum http://www.transport-museum.com/ ) , Crewe (The Railway Age Museum http://www.therailwayage.co.uk/ ) and Chester. There will also be a new hourly service direct to Rugby, Nuneaton, Trent Valley Stations, Stafford and Crewe.
The icing on the cake is improved weekend services to almost weekday levels. With 1200 miles of track on the West Coast Main Line now upgraded to 125mph tilt mode there is no excuse not to get away!
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